MB#5 - How Does Your Team Generate A Precise Future Vision?

Do You Go Bareback? Or Grab a Saddle?

Your strategic planning team has chosen a long-term target horizon - let’s say that it encompasses 22 years. Following the EndPoint method, they now look forward to the next step. Finally, some brainstorming around preferred futures is about to begin. Fun!

But what is a good way to start? Is there a structure to follow that can guide such a creative discussion? Or should it be left to “vibes”? Or instinct? Or chance? Should you find a saddle, or ride bareback?

Diverging Before Converging

Just to recap, by now you may have noticed a cadence in the typical EndPoint retreat from prior Mini-Books. In the first session, you gained an understanding of the past and present. Once that was done, the next session involved choosing a target year.

There are two tempos which occur in each session. First the team starts by generating broad responses during a brainstorming exercise. Lots of options are considered and the creative juices flow without limit.

Jokes are told, and there is laughing all the way around. Attendees are poking fun at each other.

But then, the moment comes to shift gears and create some sort of agreement. The stage shifts dramatically, usually led by a facilitator who transforms from someone who encourages the diverging addition of fresh items, into a driver of convergence. Now, it’s time for everyone to get on the same page. Why?

The fact is, each session should end with a clear decision or output. This becomes the input for the next activity. So there’s no skipping, or delaying permitted. A brick must be laid now, so that another may rest on top of it.

Is there any pressure? Absolutely. But this is no time to lose rigor. And yes, sometimes things may get testy. The clock is ticking. Sometimes there is a bus waiting, or lunch. But there cannot be a next step without successful completion of the one currently underway.

The principle of starting with a diverging activity and ending with another which is converging applies to each session of the typical EndPoint retreat.

In fact, the next one is quite challenging. Why? Stick around to the end of the Mini-Book and you’ll see why.

The Future is Hard to Create. Why?

Ask any ten-year-old: “ What would you like to be when you grow up?” This is a softball question: they are used to answering it, especially if they are articulate pre-teens who haven’t yet entered the sullen years.

A smile breaks out as they announce their choice proudly.

However, a couple of decades later, in the presence of their peers, a similar question about their company has the opposite effect. In the majority of cases, when I ask, “What does this organization want to become in the future?” I merely elicit a deep, brooding silence.

(Remember, these aren’t new employees filled with hopes and dreams.)

Instead, the room is staffed by folks with lots of gray hair, unhealed wounds, and unwelcome memories of stabbed backs and blood shed. Some have competed hard for the right to be in this retreat, but their victory has left them feeling alone.

And now, here is someone prompting them to create the future.

But it’s not that they aren’t prepared. Based on the prior two sessions earlier that day, they are well-equipped to answer. They have everything they need in terms of the facts.

Yet, at this point, some will waver and call for more time, added expertise or additional studies.